Hercules And Love Affair

• Genre: Disco
• Hometown: Brooklyn

About

Disco lives -- thrives, in fact -- in the work of Hercules and Love Affair, the New York outfit helmed by the red-haired wunderkind Andrew Butler. Dedicated to the golden days of club culture, the band combines elements of the early '80s -- electronic disco and Chicago house -- with melancholy riffs and atmospheres and clever songwriting full of subtle twists and turns. As a teenager, Butler began DJing in the leather bars of his hometown, Denver; by college, he was applying his talents to contemporary composition and conceptual art. But the dance bug still lurked within. When, after moving to New York, he discovered that its dancing days were all but over, he set about working to rectify that.

In 2007, Butler teamed up with DFA's Tim Goldsworthy to release the "Classique" single; the following year he returned with "Blind," an out-of-nowhere mind-melter featuring the voice of none other than Antony Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons. Shortly thereafter, Hercules and Love Affair released their eponymous debut album, with Antony's space-castrato voice the undeniable centerpiece on an album brimming with springy arpeggios, lugubrious bass lines and bright, brassy horns.

- Philip Sherburne